The Dish

by David Weigel

President Bush will launch another major public-relations offensive to strengthen support for the Iraq war — this time likely emphasizing the high stakes and changing nature of the battle more than the progress being made. The series of speeches begins tomorrow at the annual American Legion convention in Utah and will continue through the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and on into the middle of next month.

The new campaign is aimed at framing the Iraq debate over what the White House considers the vital stakes involved in the war and reinforcing public sentiment that favors sticking it out. The speeches will be aimed at rebutting mounting public calls — from Democrats and even a few Republicans — for setting some kind of timetable for at least a limited troop withdrawal.

– The Wall Street Journal, Aug. 30

WASHINGTON, DC—In a nationally televised address Monday, President Bush urged all citizens, regardless of race, creed, color, or political affiliation, "to quiet down for just one minute" so he could have "a chance to think."

"Every American has an inalienable right to free speech and self-expression," Bush said. "Nonetheless, I call upon the American people to hold off on it for, say, 60 seconds. Just long enough for me to get this all sorted out in my head."

"Please," Bush added.

– The Onion, Aug. 30

by David Weigel

This is already shaping up to be the worst year for incumbents since 1994, as Joe Lieberman*, Cynthia McKinney, Frank Murkowski, and Joe Schwarz have all been ousted by angry voters. Is Rep. Al Wynn (D-MD) going to be the next to fall? The congessman who represents the black suburbs of DC has lost the Washington Post’s endorsement to challenger Donna Edwards.

As we’ve noted in the past, Mr. Wynn has often seemed more involved in playing the role of a kingmaker in Prince George’s than in his duties in Congress. On key federal issues, he has cast himself as the most bipartisan member of Maryland’s congressional delegation. That’s great in theory, but too often his votes have been at odds with good government and the interests of his constituents. He has backed the estate tax repeal, a measure that benefits the richest Americans at the expense of the poor and middle class. He supported the Bush administration’s energy bill in 2003, offering subsidies to oil and gas companies even as they were headed toward record profits. He has flip-flopped on fuel efficiency standards and opposed campaign finance reform. And he has tried to clear the way for casino gambling in Prince George’s. All in all, it is a lackluster record.
…
Mr. Wynn insists he has been a successful pork-barrel politician; we suspect Ms. Edwards, razor-sharp and relentless, would be at least as effective. We disagree with her on some important issues, but we are convinced she would be the more forceful, principled and effective representative.

This is an unsophisticated political wish, I realize, and I’m not on board with all of the WaPo’s justifcations, but I can think of no finer outcome to the midterms than the ousting of 50 percent or so of the current Congress. From both parties.

*I need to explain what the asterisk is for?

by David Weigel

In retrospect, why did an Army of Bloggers (sort of copyright Glenn Reynolds) feel it necessary to call 98 U.S. senators to see which one put a hold on a Barack Obama-Tom Coburn bill to publicly track earmarks? Of course it was Ted Stevens. If earmarking was a 1970s adult film loop, Stevens would be John Holmes. (Robert Byrd could be Harry Reems.)

by David Weigel

An extra cookie, please, for whoever gave John Schwartz the green light to make Harry Anderson (of "Dave’s World" and "Night Court") the focal point of a Hurricane Katrina thumbsucker. Anderson and his wife had moved to the city in 2000, had purchased and relaunched a club, were absolutely enjoying themselves. They even held out during the hurricane and in the weeks following. It’s in the year since then that everything went pear-shaped.

The city tried to more than double their $17,000-a-year property taxes. A lawyer had the amount reduced, but “that just meant that the lawyer got the money instead of the city,” Mr. Anderson said. Then, in May, there was a repeat of an attack that had occurred more than a year before, when a stranger had approached Mr. Anderson, slammed his face into the side of a building and cursed him, saying, “You killed the Matador.” That was the name of the bar he had replaced with Oswald’s.

But it was the recent mayoral election, Mr. Anderson said, “that was the nail in the coffin.”

The re-election of C. Ray Nagin, whom Mr. Anderson holds largely responsible for New Orleans’s drift since the hurricane, came as a shock. The Sunday after the May 20 election, he said, he walked the streets of the Quarter, angry with a result that “pulled the rug out from any hope of” change for the better.

“This city hasn’t evolved,” Mr. Anderson said. “I just feel this place is stuck on stupid.”

It’s a Monty Python classic: the Greeks vs the Germans in an international soccer match between philosophers.

by Ana Marie Cox

Jonathan Chait at the New Republic offers an amusing precis on Chris Matthew’s grade school vision of foreign policy. Of the "neocons" Matthews has said

When are we going to notice that the neocons don’t know what they’re talking about? They’re not looking at this country’s long-term interests. They’re bound up in regional and global ideology, and they have had no experience–I’ll say it again–in even a schoolyard fight.

Chait theorizes:

A more suspicious mind might detect in this some ugly insinuations, but I prefer to take Matthews’s theory at face value. Maybe he truly believes that participating in schoolyard brawls is necessary training for the successful conduct of foreign policy. (Perhaps the young George F. Kennan formed the nascent outlines of his worldview in the elementary school latrine, while administering swirlies to the pencilnecks.)

Though, as we all know, it’s the pencilnecks who know how to practice real diplomacy.

Little Britain parodies the Pet Shop Boys in a Pet Shop Boys video. It’s a pretty good parody of a lot of pop videos, actually.

by Ana Marie Cox

This clip of CNN anchor Kyra Phillips apparently imparting some you-go-girl wisdom from the girls’ latrine will likely be dragged out as proof of either liberal bias or, you know, general untrustworthiness of the press. I find it kind of endearing and not nearly as embarrassing as much of the actual news produced on CNN.

Jokes to watch out for: CNN wants its anchors to emote, but Kyra really let it all out. Also: You can only listen to so much hurrican coverage before… And, lastly: We have a whole new meaning for the term "Situation Room," where shit happens.

by David Weigel

The rage at the John Mark Karr story leads citizens to attack even people who didn’t care about it very much. (Me here, Ana here, Andrew here.)

The complete corruption of the media must tickle you pink. For the last 2 wasted weeks of public airtime the disasters you and your republican colleagues have created have been ignored. Do you have any conscience whatsoever? The licenses of all broadcasters that have even one news program should be revoked immediately for the travesty of the last 2 weeks, and not given back until CLEARLY DELINEATED REGULATIONS have been set up in regard to all news coverage.

You mainstream media people will never escape what you have done to this country (no matter how many bullshit roadblocks you try to throw up) regarding Iraq and foreign policy in general.

One day I will come here and read that you have decided to go back into the private sector because you can’t handle the vitriol coming your way for the things you have done politically. It will be sooner than you think.

Again, not sure who that refers to. Maybe Rita Cosby.

by David Weigel

The Club for Growth’s successful round of Republican primary victories is backfiring in Colorado, as a retiring Republican mulls an independent write-in bid to squelch the CFG candidate who would replace him.

Rep. Joel Hefley is seriously considering running as a write-in candidate to retain his seat rather than risk handing it over to Republican nominee Doug Lamborn.

…

Shortly after announcing he would not seek an 11th term, Hefley endorsed [former aide Jeff] Crank. Crank and Lamborn engaged in a bloody political battle that included third-party mailings accusing Crank of being a tax hiker and an advocate for the “radical homosexual lobby,” charges Lamborn either leveled or refused to renounce.

Lamborn, a state senator, won the primary by 892 votes and is set to face Democrat Jay Fawcett in a district that leans heavily Republican. Thirteen Republicans have publicly announced their support for Fawcett, and others have complained behind the scenes about Lamborn’s primary campaign.

Living last year in Virginia I saw this happen on a smaller scale. Conservative Republicans primaried a number of moderate, squishy Republican state legislators in the DC suburbs and exurbs, in large part because of anger over Gov. Mark Warner’s tax hikes (which said legislators supported). The victorious conservatives got summarily creamed by Democrats. Colorado-05 should be a safe GOP seat, but Kos, for one, is bullish about Democratic chances in a three-way race. And think how happy Kos et al will be if the CFG primaries Lincoln Chafee.